Nate(96)

Then I was torn apart.





*



QUINCEY





I stood from my bed, then decided to perch on the end. Folding my hands in my lap, I rolled my shoulders back and straightened my spine. I was a perfect dancer in front of the so-not perfect father.

I didn’t care.

I was pulling on my armor for one last showdown with him. After that, I’d let myself bleed, and I’d lick my wounds, but I’d be okay.

I’d be okay…

I would.

I will.

He stepped inside the room, and I started. “It has to stop.”

My dad’s eyes were dead. He was cold.

A shiver wound down my spine because I realized how accurate my thoughts of him as a snake were. I also knew that he wasn’t going to stop, ever.

“You need to stop.” He moved farther into the room. “You need to grow up, wake up, and come home. If you bring my granddaughter, I will allow you to live on my premises.”

“She’s not yours. Not even through blood.”

“Valerie gave her to you. You are mine. Nova is mine. I want you both at home. This has gone on long enough.”

“Valerie wasn’t your child.”

“But you are. And you are Nova’s mother now. I can help you fight Monson.”

I opened my mouth.

He beat me to it, saying, “I’m aware you’re sleeping with him. And that’s okay. I understand.”

“You do?” I frowned.

“Of course. You’re ensuring your future. You’re doing what you feel you need to do so that he won’t leave you without Nova or worse, destitute. But you’re not. You have me. I can take care of you, of both my girls. But you have to come home, and we have to prepare for battle. Monson has proven to be a worthy adversary, but we can beat him. I’ll need you to tell me everything he’s done to you. That’ll make the case go better. We’ll get enough traction, and then we can take further steps against him.”

My lips parted.

He was mad. Literally.

I asked, “Like what?”

He shrugged. “I know cops.”

Dread sliced my insides, cutting a line down my organs. I was bleeding internally. “Like dirty cops?”

He didn’t answer.

“I think your dad will set me up.” Nate said it, and he was right.

I moved farther on the bed. I was no longer perched on it, but I was standing and leaning a hip against it. My arms were starting to tremble. A dancer had complete control over her body. I commanded my arms to go still, but they didn’t.

I stuffed them behind me to hide the shaking.

“I’ll do what I need to do. Monson won’t be able to raise Nova. I’ll make sure of that.”

Fuck.

I knew it then. I hadn’t known it, but I did right then and right at that moment.

I let out a small laugh, a sad laugh. “I was ready for you. I called you. I knew what I needed to do when you came to see me, but I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to do it. I hoped that you wouldn’t be who you are, and there would’ve been a part of you that would’ve come in. You would’ve seen me. You would’ve realized you were being wrong in everything you’re doing, and you would’ve asked to hug me. You would’ve told me you loved me. And you would’ve asked what you could do to make it better.”

A tear tracked down my cheek.

I let it be.

My voice was hoarse, almost cracking. “But you didn’t, because that’s not who you are. And I can’t have who you are in my life anymore, even if you are my father. This is it, Dad. This is the end for us. I want you to stop plotting after Nate or me.”

“You are not thinking clearly—”

“I called Carl.”

He stopped.

I didn’t want to play this card, but he was giving me no choice.

So I played it. “You never paid back that loan.”

“What?”

“To the mafia family in Canada? The loan you took out from them for your casino? You cheated them.” I held up my phone. “Carl sent me the proof.”

If he could’ve killed me, he would’ve. Right then and there.

His hands jerked up, but then he froze.

Those hands stayed up, and they curled forward as if he were imagining it was my neck he was squeezing. His nostrils flared as if he were enjoying that he was pretending to kill me.

“You ungrateful bitch.”

“Drop everything you’re planning against Nate and me, or I’ll send this proof to those people.” I wasn’t bluffing when I told him this, but I was about to bluff what I was going to do next. “Nate knows people who can get in contact with them. It would not be hard to do it, and Carl told me their reputation. They’re not as bloodthirsty as most mobs, but if you fuck them over, you are annihilated. Simply put. Seeing that the proof is coming from your own daughter, I don’t imagine they’d want to reach out to enact their revenge on the blood that’s turning you in. Though I could be wrong. If I am, then I am. So be it because I am more than willing to die to save Nova from you.”

He stared at me, long and hard.

It was a full-on glare.

Hatred and the promise of violence lurked in his gaze, but I held firm. My dancing fa?ade was firmly in place, but also the mere fact I was Nova’s mother and God help those who try to hurt a mother’s child.